Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/44

 ships. Thus, from a painting at Herculaneum, said to represent the ship of Theseus, he has shown that the ancient sailors knew the use of the capstan and hawser; but it still remains a difficulty to understand how their large ships were steered, unless some machinery were used of which we have no account, to work the very large oars thrust through portholes in either quarter. Mr. Smith has also proved, from representations on the Leaning Tower of Pisa, on the Bayeux Tapestry, and on the gold nobles of Edward III., that the primitive mode of steering by one or more oars—as visible on the reliefs of Trajan's Column—prevailed as late as the fourteenth century; such rude appliances, however, could have been available only for small vessels.

For a long period the rig of ancient ships was of the simplest kind—a single large square sail on the mainmast being the chief means of propulsion. In the case of large vessels there was a sort of square sail on a short mast at the stern, and a similar one at the bow; but these would be of more use in steering than in propelling. The Romans appear to have had a small triangular sail, like the Greek letter Delta ([Greek: D]), which bore the name of suppara, from its supposed resemblance to a woman's shift; but such a sail could only have been used in fair weather.

"Undergirding" a ship, as mentioned by St. Luke, is rarely practised at the present day; but implements